torsdag, april 27, 2017

Autobiography, memoir or novel?


Illustration: Susanna Kajermo Törner

A while back I took a notion that I would tell the story about the kind of childhood that my brothers and I had in the 50s in Finland.  My brothers are no more. I am the only one left so I had to catch this fast fading childhood by the tail and pull it back if I wanted to make a record of it.
But would it be an autobiography or a memoir?
Hardly an autobiography because such mighty tomes are written by men of national or international importance. A memoir then?  Tove Jansson's Moominpappa says that if you are a 'father of a family and an owner of a house' you can poise your memoir-pen and start. He also says 'Everyone, of whatever walk of life, who has achieved anything good in this world, or think he has, should, if he be truth-loving and nice, write about his life,  albeit not starting before the age of forty'. It sounds as if it could be a convoluted and lengthy business.
It will have to be a novel I thought. It would give me the freedom to boil down many samey events to one intense event. And by tweaking the story a little  I could give it a better structure. But my story would still be true in its essence.
And all the paper I would save! 

1 Comments:

Blogger LL said...

Hej, jag läste just din bok (på engelska). Den var väldigt bra, både rolig och sorglig, och intressant. Skrev du den på engelska? Jag försöker alltid hitta en svensk översättning på nordiska författare först. Grattis ialllfall, du är jätteduktig! Du kan väl översätta till både svenska och finska själv...
Lotta Lilja

9:57 fm  

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